Ranch Life – Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Category: Ranch Life

Don’t Worry Mate

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Ranch Life, Travel / May 20, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

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Pulling Pipe

Cattle, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life, Relationships / May 14, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Trouble down the well

and me, my dad, and my brothers
are Texas roughnecks

pulling spinning and stacking pipe
pipe and rod and “Careful dammit!
If you drop that rod the well is shot”

We’re Red Adair, fighting a fire
we’re wet and muddy and cold and mad
and we’ve got to get it done by dark

The gold down there’s not black but red
an iron rich sea hiding away
from the pulling power of the prairie sun

Looking back fifty years from a poet’s perch

I pull, spin and stack
metaphor and meaning

Back then it was just men
doing what they had to do

and white-faced cattle waiting

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Train Day

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Courval, Ghost Town, Prairie Life, Saskatchewan, Train Day, Trains / May 11, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Once a week, once a week
they came from all around, all around
and swelled, and swelled
the size of our young town

And the chugging grew, and the chugging grew
and the chugging grew, and the whistle blew
and all was new, and the children knew

But now the lines are down, all down
old folks and old dogs in the town
not a child nor a pup, nor a pup
and not one elevator up

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April 4 a.m.

Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / April 27, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Spring rain
on my father’s grave
The urge to get up
and into the fields again

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Alberta Air

Audio Recordings, Nature, Ranch Life / April 24, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

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The 2019 Austin International Poetry Festival starts today! A warm welcome to all the incoming presenters and participants. This year Cowboy Poetry is making its debut at the festival with workshops by John Legacy and Steve Brooks on Saturday April 6th at the Learning Center at the Holiday Inn Midtown in Austin. Check www.AIPF.org for details.

The story was told by my old friend Bill
about a time when he was four
well maybe a little less, maybe a little more

Seems he’d been rubbin’ up against some boys in town
and learned some language that made his momma frown
His folks tried about everything from soap on down
but the lessons they were pouring in just didn’t stay down

Finally they said, now Billy my boy
the decision we’re makin’ gives us no joy
Because generally we like you, and you’re pretty good with your chores
but there’s no room on this ranch for language like yours

So, though it’s sure to make us grieve
we’ve packed your bag, and you’ll have to leave
They peeked through the curtains as he walked down the lane
with Dad remindin’ Mom that some lessons have pain

Billy stood at the road for 20 minutes or more
then slowly trudged back and knocked on the door
They slipped from the window and opened it slow
he said

“where in the hell am I supposed to go?”

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Little Brown Jug

Ranch Life / tagged Music / April 2, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

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Motherin Up

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Rebound / April 1, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Sometimes you loose a cow
sometimes you loose a calf
you wrap the orphan in the dead calf's skin and the mother takes her in like kin
gold enough there for a country song it's a hurting song - you can sing along about true love died and true love gone and fooling yourself just long enough to keep on keeping on

This year the Austin International Poetry Festival is offering Cowboy Poetry workshops featuring John Legacy and Steve Brooks, hosted by Neil Meili and Connie Lane Williams – Workshops are Saturday April 6 at 9am and 11am – at the Learning Center – Holiday Inn Midtown, Austin. Visit www.aipf.org for more details

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